New impotence drug 'better than Viagra'

The company that brought the world Prozac, the antidepressant wonder drug, has developed a new anti-impotency pill to surpass Viagra.

The company that brought the world Prozac, the antidepressant wonder drug, has developed a new anti-impotency pill to surpass Viagra.

Eli Lilly's new drug, code-named IC351, is one of three new treatments which are set to storm the $1bn-a-year impotency market.

Viagra is the fastest-selling drug in history, but it has also been dogged by a series of health scares.

Men with heart conditions, taking nitrate-based medication, are banned from using the pill because of the potentially lethal side effects. But the restrictions on Viagra's use have prompted a rush to the internet where the drug can be purchased without the need of a prescription.

The British Medical Association has warned of the "inherent risks and cataclysmic consequences" of purchasing prescription-only medication such as Viagra online.

Viagra has been linked to hundreds of deaths, including at least 30 in the UK, although Pfizer, which manufactures the drug, points out that no causal link has yet been proved.

The deaths are, says the company, the result of over-exertion by elderly men who have become unaccustomed to vigorous sexual activity.

The dangers of Viagra even prompted a storyline in EastEnders. Roy Evans, despite suffering angina, bought Viagra illegally to revive his sex life with wife Pat. He suffered serious side effects which almost killed him before turning to counselling for help with his impotence.

Viagra's rivals are hoping to produce "erectile dysfunction" drugs which are free of such side effects.

Eli Lilly, which developed Prozac and still retains the exclusive licence to manufacture the drug, has launched phase three, the most advanced stage, of its clinical trials for IC351.

The drug works in a similar way to Viagra, but the company believes it will cause fewer complications.

"We are really encouraged by the tests so far," said spokeswoman Lacy Fitzpatrick. She said she hoped to submit IC351 for licence next year.

Uprima, another Viagra rival produced by Abbott Laboratories, is currently winning the race to reach chemists' counters and should be available within six months.

Dissolved under the tongue rather than swallowed, Uprima is promising to speed up the critical "onset" period, the time taken to achieve an erection after taking the impotence pill.

Viagra takes at least an hour to work its way through the system. Uprima is promising users an "onset" time of just 20 minutes.

The third drug to challenge Viagra's supremacy is Vasomax. Much-heralded last year, it was due to launch in 1999 but suffered an 18-month clinical setback when drug-testing officials in America discovered that rats developed brown fat, a bizarre side effect, when taking Vasomax.

The company is hopeful it can get its trials back on track over the next few months.

The new drugs should be good news for impotence-sufferers who may well see the price of pills, currently between £8 and £12, begin to fall.

They will also be good news for pilots. Most airlines ban their fliers from taking Viagra within six hours of take-off - the drug can impair the ability to distinguish between blue and green, colours used on instrument displays and runway lights. Tests of IC351 are showing no signs of the drug causing "visual impairment", said Ms Fitzpatrick.

Viagra's success in the impotence market - there are an estimated 18 million male sufferers in the US and another 2.5 million in the UK - has been remarkable.

It has been used by many celebrities, from the US politician Bob Dole, who publicly backed its launch, to Jerry Springer, the talk-show host who blamed his romp with a porn star backstage and shortly before his show, on the drug.

"Viagra made me lose my mind. I thought I was some kind of sexual superman," he explained. Others who have bragged of Viagra's benefits include the actor Jim Carrey and Los Angeles-based hairdressing tycoon Vidal Sassoon.

Stars in the UK have proved rather more demure in admitting impotency problems. "It is impossible to get anybody famous over here to come out and talk about it," said Ann Craig, of the Impotence Association. "Viagra is a good and effective treatment but it isn't suitable for everyone. It is not uncommon for people to suffer from impotence for six years or more. A wider choice of treatment must be good news."

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